Original Message

I would think the pilots would have a lot of leverage in their negotiations as it is likely the company would be negatively affected (more so than many other companies) by fluctuations in revenue.  Remember, this company was trading at something in excess of $50 a share the year prior to being taken private.  The stock went down to something like $28.  The purchaser then paid something like $43 a share (for a company with a downward trend in share price).  Here's the rub:  they borrowed a bunch of money to buy AMC.  When Aaron Todd was CEO, he publically stated he wanted to keep debt at no less than two times cash flow, no more than 4 times.  It went up to something like 8 times after the sale according to Moody's.  Some of the bonds issued to pay for the company are now trading at $68 and yielding 23 percent.  We used to refer to bonds yielding this amount as "junk".  In my opinion, financial leverage coupled with uncertainty about reimbursement levels under the No Surprises Act creates a situation where the company needs to operate a max capacity.  Here is the data on the bond: